Federal Chief Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale has declared Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional and ordered the state to allow same-sex couples to marry and to recognize the marriages of couples who wed in other states.

On Tuesday Judge Terence Kern of the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled that the Sooner State’s amendment banning same-sex marriage is “an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit” and violates the U.S. Constitution.

Don’t order the cake and orange blossoms just yet, though. The ruling is stayed pending appeal, so there won’t be gay nuptials in Muskogee any time soon.

There’s panic in the streets of Salt Lake City! U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby has ruled that a 2004 Utah state constitutional amendment and two state laws banning same-sex marriage violate gay and lesbian couples’ 14th Amendment rights to due process and equal protection under the law. The state measures claimed to be “defense of marriage” provisions, but the state failed to show that same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any manner, according to the judge.

The Supreme Court has ruled. Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. Same-sex couples married in states where it is legal must receive the same federal health, tax, Social Security and other benefits that heterosexual couples receive. Other aspects of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act remain, and only 13 states and the District of Columbia believe civil marriage is a civil right, so legal and legislative battles will continue.

“The man who accused Kevin Clash, the voice and puppeteer of the Sesame Street character Elmo, of an under-age sexual relationship has recanted that claim, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

The reversal came a day after the claim was published by the gossip Web site TMZ, threatening Mr. Clash’s reputation and alarming parents and other fans of the beloved children’s television franchise.”

It was a June wedding for Mary Cheney and her longtime partner Heather Poe in Washington DC last Friday. The happy couple, who have two children, were congratulated by Ms. Cheney’s father, former vice president Dick Cheney.

Ms. Cheney, a conservative political consultant, and Ms. Poe, a former park ranger, met 20 years ago while playing ice hockey. The two live in Virginia but married in the District of Columbia, one of six U.S. jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is legal.